


Noticing / Not Noticing

by MaddietheMuse



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Denial, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 17:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddietheMuse/pseuds/MaddietheMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles has been noticing things about Derek. Things he likes. Derek has NOT been noticing things about Stiles, he hasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Noticing / Not Noticing

**Author's Note:**

> I've been laying on the couch sick for two days and have watched all of Season 1 and about half of Season 2...this just sort of happened. It's not time-line specific (future obv.), and not canon compliant.  
> It's fluff, pure fluff, because I'm sick and I wanted to feel better.

Stiles had been watching Derek for a long time now. Months, longer maybe. He wasn't really sure when it had started. He'd always been fascinated by the werewolf, but it had changed somewhere along the way and he'd started watching him with a different sort of appreciation.

Appreciation for things like the way Derek's muscles moved under his taught skin, and the even more taught layer of thin cotton covering his chest. Things like the keen look he got in his eye when he was concentrating on the latest problem at hand. Or the way he mentored and guided the rest of the pack, despite his attempt to convince them all that they were a burden on him.

Derek had resolutely _not_ been watching Stiles. He hadn't noticed the way he'd seemed to have grown into himself over the last few months, and that his gangly teenage body had filled out. He hadn't noticed how Stiles wasn't able to keep his hands still, or how his long thin fingers seemed to need to touch everything the teen encountered. He hadn't noticed that Stiles' constant chatter was typically quite insightful and often helpful in solving the problems at hand. And he certainly hadn't noticed the added sense of confidence that he carried with him, and the way his voice had settled into a raspy baritone. No he hadn't noticed any of these things at all; that would be completely inappropriate after all.

Okay, so maybe Derek _had_ noticed, but he certainly wasn't going to do anything about it.

The rest of the pack was out, amazingly. Stiles hadn't dared to dream that it would be that easy to get Derek alone; something he knew he would have to do eventually now that he had resolved to finally talk to the Alpha about what he'd been noticing and how it was affecting him.

There Stiles stood, in the still charred entrance way of the Hale house, only a few feet separating him from the very person he'd come to talk to. Just because he had resolved to do this didn't mean it was going to be easy, and his nerves were currently getting the better of him; he had to move.

"What's going on?" Derek questioned him gruffly, watching as the lanky frame of the teen stalked back and forth across the dark foyer. Stiles scrubbed his hand through his hair, and sighed heavily. He stopped in front of Derek, looked him square in the eye and immediately started pacing again.

On his second pass of his renewed diversion pacing, Derek reached his hands out to stop Stiles in front of him by holding on to his shoulders. "Stop," he insisted. He dropped his hands back to his sides once the younger man had stilled in front of him.

"Okay. Derek, the thing is..." Stiles stopped to take a stealing breath, trying to come up with just the right way to say what he needed to say. "Well, I sort of...um," Stiles trailed off again after raising his eyes to meet Derek's and losing his courage yet again.

"Stiles," Derek tried to interject, but Stiles started pacing again and muttering to himself under his breath—of course Derek was able to hear everything he said though.

"This shouldn't be that difficult. Just say it. What's the worst thing that could happen?" he paced and ranted quietly to himself. "Pfft...well, he could freak out and..."

"I'm not going to freak out, Stiles," Derek interrupted him.

"Right. Yeah, sure. Of course not," he quipped back to himself.

"Stiles!" Derek growled finally, drawing his full attention and halting Stiles in his tracks again.

He nodded vigorously, swallowed and charged forward with his prepared confession again. "Derek, I..." the words stuck in his throat.

Derek had known that this conversation was inevitable. He'd thought it would take longer for Stiles to come forward about all the things he had been noticing about the pack leader, and Derek had been dreading being forced to face the things he himself had resolutely not been noticing in return. He decided the only way to get to the end of this awkward conversation was to take pity on the youth and get it started for him.

"I know," he said simply. Being a man of few words, most of them cryptic, didn't really help their current situation, however.

Stiles huffed a nervous laugh and shook his head, chancing a glance at Derek though his eyelashes. "No. You don't."

"Stiles," Derek waited for him to look back up before continuing. "I know," he affirmed with a stern nod.

Stiles' mouth fell open as the realization that Derek did in fact know what he had been trying to tell him; maybe not the specifics, but he could tell that the general message of the unspoken confession was indeed common knowledge to both parties in the room. "Oh," a tiny gasp escaped his parted lips, drawing Derek's eye. "You know?"

"Yes."

"Right. Of course you know. I don't know why I thought you wouldn't know," Stiles resumed his anxious rambling, but he remained standing directly in front of Derek. Close. Definitely within normal personal bubble boundaries. Which wasn't really all that uncommon amongst the pack, but neither of them did anything to rectify that situation at that moment. "What do you know, exactly?" he asked, looking up with a mixed look of hope and concern.

"I know that I can feel you watching me sometimes," he stated, giving Stiles a meaningful look. "I know that your heart rate rises unexpectedly when it never used to."

"Right. Yeah. Okay, umm..." Stiles nodded and swallowed thickly, thinking his heart rate must be doing just that now because he could feel it pounding in his eardrums.

"I know that you often smell of powerful pheromones," Derek confirmed Stiles' fear that he hadn't been hiding his lust all that well—stupid werewolves and their elevated senses.

The distance between the two of them had slowly dwindled until they were standing less than a foot apart. Close enough that Stiles was able to feel the elevated body temperature rolling off Derek's chest right in front of him.

"Yeah, well, that's not that unusual, right?" Stiles tried to under play the significance. Come on, he was a teenager after all!

"No," Derek agreed. He knew that he _shouldn't_ be noticing how Stiles lips were parted and he gasped in little ragged breaths, or how he ran his tongue over his bottom lip nervously. He knew he shouldn't be noticing the boy's fingers twitching and flexing at his side like they wanted to reach out and touch him, or how his Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed before speaking again.

"Right, so I guess you know, then?" Stiles' voice came out in a soft croak. He cleared his throat and drummed up all the courage he could to continue now that he had started down this path of honesty. "What are you going to do with that knowledge, Derek?"

"What do you want me to do with it?" Derek answered, his tone edging on annoyance. He didn't move away from Stiles like he knew he should. He didn't stop Stiles from lifting his hand and gently brushing his fingers over his forearm.

Stiles' already flushed cheeks darkened as his eyes darted down to Derek's mouth and back up to his eyes before mumbling his quick reply, "I really want you to kiss me."

The next few minutes seemed to drag out as Stiles held his breath waiting for Derek's response. He'd laid all his cards out on the table and could only wait and see what happened. Derek fought to drag his eyes away from Stiles' parted lips; he closed them tightly a moment before answering.

"I can't," Derek breathed, sounding pained.

"Can't, or won't?" Stiles quipped. Feeling emboldened by the fact that Derek still hadn't stepped back to regain his personal space, Stiles inched closer to the Alpha.

"Shouldn't." Derek struggled to keep his breathing steady despite the constriction he felt in his chest. He hadn't expected Stiles to be so bold. He hadn't thought he would come forward with this so soon. He thought he would have more time to ready his defenses, and was left feeling unprepared.

"Why not?" Stiles asked, looking intently into Derek's face now, his heart rate calming into a more steady rhythm. That's something Derek would admit to noticing about Stiles; his ability to adapt to a stressful situation. It didn't seem to matter if that stress was external or caused by his own overactive mind, as the current situation was a clear indication of.

Derek reached up and placed a firm hand on Stiles' shoulder, stopping him from leaning any further forward. "Because you're 17."

"I'll be 18 in a few of months," he defended.

"Five months, Stiles. And you're father is the Sheriff, and..."

Stiles interrupted him. "Those are bullshit excuses, Derek. If you don't..." he stopped and sighed heavily, not wanting to verbalize his renewed fear that Derek might not want him the way he wanted Derek. "If you don't want me, just say so. I'm a big boy, I can take it," he finished, shaking his head. He stepped back a little and let his hand drop from Derek's arm.

Derek _did_ notice, how Stiles' heart rate increased again. He _did_ notice the sour tang of sadness that filled his nostrils from Stiles' skin. He _did_ notice how Stiles was no longer looking at him, but looking at his own shoes instead.

"Stiles, I...Oh to Hell with it," Derek groaned.

Derek's hand was at the back of Stiles' neck pulling him forward. Their mouths crashing together before Stiles had a chance to respond. The shock only lasted a couple of seconds before realizations sunk in and he kissed Derek back. Stiles had thought about this moment a thousand times and none of the scenarios he'd imagined could ever have prepared him for the reality of kissing Derek Hale.

The only thing that Stiles was able to notice was the warmth of Derek's mouth on his before his mind went completely blank, possibly for the first time ever.

Derek on the other hand noticed every little detail of their first kiss. He noticed that Stiles' lips were soft, but his touch was firm as he curled his fingers into the hair at the back of his neck. He noticed the soft hitching noise in the back of Stiles' throat as he swathed his tongue over the soft lips against his, asking permission. When Stiles parted his lips to him, Derek noticed that his mouth tasted of orange tic-tacs, and that his tongue felt cool. He noticed the tension that Stiles usually held in his shoulders melted away as he wrapped his arms around his waist and pulled him against his chest. And he noticed the panting of Stiles' laboured breaths as he pulled away from the younger man's mouth and dipped his head to his neck.

He didn't notice the little voice in the back of his mind that was trying to talk him out of this, though. He resolutely ignored that as he trailed his nose along the underside of Stiles' jaw and listened to him gasp.

Stiles' birthday was in a few months. He'd be an adult then, and it wouldn't matter that Derek was over half decade older than him. They would just have to take things slow until then. Five months wasn't that long...

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Teen Wolf fic. I'm not really familiar with the fandom so I hope this isn't too off the mark. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> 
> And of course, I don't own anything Teen Wolf. No copyright infringement is intended. For entertainment only.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](http://wordsnwolves.tumblr.com/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Noticing / Not Noticing (Podfic)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5424221) by [VeegiDawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeegiDawn/pseuds/VeegiDawn)




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